Chapter 5: Dinner with the Richards

After a short drive John and Alice arrived at John's house. John quickly put his bike away, while Alice parked her car and then he rejoined her.

After opening the front door, he yelled loudly, "We're home!"

"Okay dear, we're in the living room!" a woman, probably John's mother, yelled back.

Entering the living room together, they were warmly welcomed by Mr. and Mrs Richards, John's parents.

"Hi mom and dad, this is Miss Evans, my math teacher!" John said with a cheerful voice.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, mister and Mrs Richards," Alice said, introducing herself to his parents.

She had met John's mother before, but the talks with her had been brief and formal and were mostly about his results at school.

"The pleasure is all ours darling," mister Richards replied, while he looked Alice over.

He seemed to only give her a few quick glances, though Alice noticed he'd have loved to stare more at her, but didn't want to come across as rude. Not to mention his wife was right next to him and Alice figured it'd get him into a fight with her if he did.

While smiling gently she thought, Maybe it runs in the family, like father like son? They both seem unable to keep their eyes off me.

"Please call me Anna," John's mother suggested, "we might as well be on a first name basis outside the school."

Alice nodded in agreement and simply replied, "Alice," while she shook Anna's hand.

"And this pig here is called Harry," Anna said, poking her husband in the side, who was still looking Alice over appreciatively and paying hell for it now.

Alice slightly winced in sympathy, it looked like a mean poke, but at least it caught Harry's attention.

"Ahem, my apologies. I didn't mean to stare like that. It's just that I didn't know John was being taught math by a photo model," Harry replied, with a silly grin on his face.

The whole family and Alice heard a girl running down the stairs, while yelling, "Mom! Is dinner ready!? I'm going out with Karin tonight!"

However, upon entering the room and seeing Alice, she quickly forgot what she was asking and apologetically said, "Oh ... Hi, I didn't know we had guests."

"And this bundle of teenage spirit is Tara, our daughter," Anna commented, her face had turned a little sour at Tara's lack of manners.

"Hi Tara," Alice said, extending her hand, "I'm Alice, John's math teacher."

Shaking her hand Tara replied, "His teacher huh? Is he into some kind of trouble!?"

She seemed to like the idea of her kid brother being in trouble at school, but Alice quickly helped her out of her dream, "No, not at all. Actually, it's more like the opposite. John is a model student and I wish I had more students like him in my class. A lot of them lack manners and a respect for their teachers. John is a great example for them all and I wished more of them were raised to be as polite as him."

"Oh..." Tara replied, she actually sounded a little disappointed at the praise her brother received.

Her parents, however, were very glad to hear that their son was behaving so well and especially Anna was beaming a wide smile.

"Shall we get to dinner then?" Harry suggested, after his stomach grumbled loudly in protest, at not having been fed already.

The others had to snicker at that and Anna led them the way to the dinner table. Harry sat at the head of the table and Alice got to sit next to John. Anna had already put the food on the table and after Harry said praise and thanked the Lord for the food they'd been given, they got busy with distributing dinner among the hungry mouths.

"So, Alice," Harry started, between bites, "I heard that you had a suggestion that would take John out of her hands for two full weeks?"

"Harry!" Anna exclaimed, with an admonishing tone of voice, "Mind your manners. Don't talk and eat."

It was obvious to Alice who was really wearing the pants in this household, but to spare Harry from further embarrassment, she quickly said, "Ah yes, John remarked earlier how he likes to hike and how you wanted to go on a cruise this summer, but didn't find a place for him to stay yet. If it's okay with you two, I want to offer taking him with me, on a two weeks hiking trip through the forests."

"Are you sure it wouldn't be any trouble for you? John can be quite a handful, when he's turned lose on Mother Nature," Anna wanted to know.

"I'm sure he'll behave, won't you John?" Alice asked him, with her sweetest voice.

Taken by surprise the only thing John could stumble was, "Ah, eh ... Yeah."

Grinning Anna remarked, "It seems like you already figured out how to wrap him around your finger."

John had to blush at that, he didn't seem to expect to be the center of attention like this.

"We don't want it to be any trouble on your side though," Anna said, continuing seriously again, "two weeks can be a long time, when you have to spend it in solitude, with nothing but each other. I'm sure John knows how to handle himself, after all he's been a boy scout for six years, but I don't want you to feel obliged to take him with you."